AIBU to think the wildfire alert about barbecues was unnecessary?

[HollyhockDayssss]

AIBU to think the alert was unnecessary? I get wildfires are an issue but informing the public not to use bbqs isnt a life and death situation.

100 miles away now, 5 miles away in half an hour.Think about it.

Isn't it lovely that so many people are empathic. Shame it never happens to them

I'm waiting for the ones in October and January to remind us of the tax deadline!

I think you are expecting too much of these people.

Honestly, if people can't understand the importance of the alert going out, they are just a bit dense.

"But if the system gets overrused blah blah".

It's the second alert this year. Get a fucking grip.

They just do things too late, that's all

You obviously do not live near or have seen the amount of fires going on lately! Look at Stourbridge in the West Midlands and all the fires in Romford/Rainham on the a13 near where I live.
don’t get me wrong, the alert scared the life out of me, but it was needed. Not sure how many people will take notice though!

Incredibly stupid. And unlikely to deter the idiots who are causing fires. We had just come back from the yard and if it had gone off while we were hacking the horses in traffic, it could have caused an accident.

Well the guy in the phone shop disabled everything that wasn't her diabetic app but somehow the gov still got through!

Quite. I mean, we all know that a fire can't kill anyone, can it?..... 🤦🏼‍♂️

This alert came very late in the story. It reminds me of the Christmas card:

Angel Gabriel: I bring good news…
Everyone else: you’re too late, it’s all over Twitter.

You're fortunate in not having ever been inconvenienced or threatened by a wildfire if you can ask that question.

As an American, I have, and on enough occasions that I cannot remember how often. Just a spark, carried in the wind for unpredictable distances, from one barbecue, campfire, or even a controlled, or rather intended to be controlled burn can cause immeasurable damage and loss of life. It may not be your house or life which is destroyed, but consider how (I hope) you'd feel if you caused that to happen to anyone else. Wildfires, upend peoples lives, and livelihoods as people are displaced (including those where the victims are displaced to), cause money intended for other needs to have to be spent to alleviate the needs of victims; and that doesn't even count what it does to land and wildlife.

Then there's the smoke, which may cause lifelong medical conditions to yourself or others nearby or downwind for however long it takes to dissipate. It contributes to greenhouse gases, and global warming.

Please don't ignore bans on fires.

I Iive near the 19 decimated houses . It was 100% valid. My daughter’s friend has lost her family home! I swear some people have zero empathy

If it is an android phone, the emergency alert setting should be under notifications.

I read that it was the fire service that pushed for this. Some people just take no notice of warnings but this was one that would be harder to ignore, especially with everyone talking about it.

What I really feelnfrustrated about is the entitled attitudes a neighbour said to me "it ruined our evening (sitting in a pub) with everyone's phones going off"
Posters on threads that they had inly just got their children to sleep. Maybe a text would have helped instead as I do have sympathy for some who are hard of hearing and their aids are linked to their phone, or people who were driving.
However perhaps given the responses on this, other threads and irl something needed doing to make it sink in.
Makes me wonder what my grandparents generation who lived through the blitz would make of the responses.

Can you explain how sending out the alert helped those 16 families?

Your grandparents who lived through the blitz would be astonished that any government would think it appropriate to use an emergency alert system in this way.

I mean, it was just an alert. Phones buzzed for a second.

No need to take offence

we have had a few fires in our town this week, a result of bbq and fireworks

They've have been delighted. It would have saved my grandfather coming home from Fire Watch (which would have involved seeing the results of people not being aware that a fire was travelling rapidly in their direction without being able to do more than hope somebody had a bike to be able to go and shout at doors) to find his wife and infant daughter buried under 3 floors of their home because she hadn't realised it was time to go.

But it is life and death. Look at the destruction being caused and people are stupid enough to use them. It is only by the work of those fighting the fires that lives lost is the number it is but it is only a matter of time if this continues. To see people losing their homes is heartbreaking. I get not all fires are caused by BBQs but it is blooming scary to watch what is happening in our country and the world at the moment due to the heat. If it stopped one fire then I do think it was worth it. At the end of the day it was an alert and I am not sure how this is such a big deal to people

No, the alert was absolutely necessary and on point. 19 houses have been completely destroyed in Stourbridge and a further 18 severely damaged. This is a life or death situation.

Have you not seen the images of the destruction caused by recent wildfires? I live within a couple of minutes from a huge forest and idiots going there and leaving their disposable bbq smouldering is my nightmare. People don’t understand about how quickly fire spreads and also about fire storms.

In a age pre mobile phones what do you think air raid warnings were? Or govt information posters and leaflets, or the information films in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

I will explain it to you.

It is an emergency situation & exactly what the system was designed for

The fire service is facing unprecedented pressures & are exceeding their capacity to provide a safe service to the public.

The risk to life isn't just coming from the wildfires themselves it's coming from the fact that there is no capacity left for other emergencies.

Take for example the New Forest fires. There are crews from Manchester, yorkshire & London present at this fire. This leaves those areas with a reduced capacity. There are states of emergency in several parts of the country which means in some areas there are no fire crews or vehicles available to respond.

Any more major fires on top of what we already have will mean things like if you or your family were in a car crash & were trapped a crew would be severely delayed in reaching you - travelling 100 miles to reach you could make the difference between you & your child surviving or not.

My brother maintains vehicles for the fire service. He normally has about 20 vehicles on site for repairs & maintenance. He currently has zero. If a vehicle is damaged or has a fault there is zero to replace that with.

The warning was not about a wildfire about to kill you, it came from the fire service chiefs who need you to take those precautions in order to protect everyone else.

Yes the tin hat brigade will hate it just like they did with the COVID jab & masks.

Ask yourself how it would feel knowing your child was trapped & that there was no fire crew to respond & the nearest was 100 miles away.

The issue is the capacity of the fire service to respond.

They have exceeded capacity, there are several states of emergency across the country. Resources have been drawn from other areas leaving those with virtually no capacity to respond to say someone trapped in a vehicle following a crash.

Any more major fires or pressures are going to mean that the fire service will be unable to respond.

If you or your child were then in a road collision & trapped you would face a lengthy delay before a fire crew could reach you or possibly no response at all. The likelihood is that you or your child could die or sustain further injuries. Ask yourself if you would have wanted the government to have done everything possible to prevent that or whether you would be happy to lose your child in order to save the inconvenience of an alert

There is no joke. It is as serious as the fire chiefs are saying & why the alert was requested